Charleston wrote:

A little cavalier are we?

Maybe the value of human life is different where you are from. In the U.S.
we place the value of human life up there in the stratosphere. We
especially do this when people voluntarily put heir lives on the line for
their country.

The value of a life in the US is on the order of millions of dollars.
This is small compared to the cost of a shuttle launch, or to the cost
of an orbiter.

If the shuttle were an order of magnitude less expensive, but no safer,
it would be worth flying. If it were an order of magnitude safer, but
no less expensive, it would not be.

Paul